Whether it’s a New Year’s resolution you want to keep, or whether you simply want to bring changes into your life, use these 5 tips we collected for you to successfully change your habit and ingrain a new behaviour.

1. Make it easy

Don’t overcomplicate it, just choose a goal you really want to achieve and write it down with a plan.

Be specific: answer simple questions like why do you want it, when, where, how, how much, and give details about the habit you’re going to change. Include what you think will be the positive impact on your life if you keep going with the habit.

2. Keep it simple

Focus on only ONE habit at a time and stick with it at least for 30 days. Start with small steps and spend even just a small amount of time a day on that specific activity.

Even if you’re extra busy or overwhelmed with your current life situation, we can all agree, it is absolutely possible to find at least 10-15 minutes for it per day.

3. Find a trigger

The best you can do is trigger the habit you want to form by activities you have already included in your daily routine.

Set implementation intention (‘if-then’ plans) and link the new habit with an existing one. For instance, if you’d like to meditate every day, you can aim for “When I wake up, I brush my teeth and then I meditate”. Use these 9 Ways to improve your self-discipline to support your habit changing progress.

4. Reward yourself

Celebrate every milestone, no matter how small it is. Rewarding yourself is great positive feedback, but the reward needs to be immediate. Learn more about The power of now and how you can harness it.

5. Be positive

Positive thinking helps you to maintain motivation, be confident about your success, and support you in sticking with the new habit. Keep trusting ‘you can do it’.

Various visualisation techniques help you to place yourself in ‘your destination’. Don’t be too harsh on yourself. Everyone can have a difficult day, so don’t give up if you weren’t successful; learn from your failure by figuring out the obstacles.